Thursday, December 11, 2014

Chocolate Passport - Trader Joe's: Marlton, NJ (Tanzania)

Chocolate Passport (Tanzania) - Trader Joe's: Marlton, NJ

Today I'll be taking a break from all my pumpkin posts (we're almost done!) to show you this freaking gorgeous chocolate gift-set from Trader Joe's. I was walking around the shop, buying my usual treats, when I saw this on a wooden table by the checkout lines. The packaging caught my eye, so I made a beeline right to it and tossed it into my cart. I thought this might make a nifty little gift item for those of you still shopping for the holidays, so I thought I'd take a moment to review it and let you know what I think.

Okay, it's obvious, I love this packaging. It's just so beautiful, well thought out, and detailed! I took way too many photos for this post. (It's been a while since I have geeked out over packaging this badly.) The box itself is study and it looks very similar to passport booklet, hence the name, it even has a plastic-y, pleathery coating to the outside with silver foil inlays! Okay Trader Joe's you got me good with this one. I can't say a single bad thing about it.

Inside the box there are several little stamps and faux postage marks, and each individual chocolate bar is wrapped in a paper related to it's chocolate's origin that explains it's unique flavor. Now, these are not flavored chocolates, these are just dark chocolate bars that are made using cocoa beans from these locations, and those locations each have their own unique flavor due to their environment.

Today I'll just be reviewing one flavor (since I went crazy with the product photos) so let's see how Tanzania tastes! As you can see, this wrapper says that this specific chocolate will be 73% dark chocolate and it is meant to have a subtle fruity flavoring as well as a hint of vanilla. Sounds great to me! (Looks great too.)

Although each bar has it's own color scheme and differentiated information, the backs are all the same.

Unwrapped, the bar is glossy and gorgeous! It smells a bit bitter, but it's dark chocolate so that makes sense, and each little square is stamped with a Trader Joe's logo. I tried to break the bar apart, but it isn't really scored, just embossed. It took a bit of force to break the bar apart, and when I did, the pieces don't break into their marked square shapes.If you want to share this I suggest breaking it apart with a knife, it'll be a lot cleaner and more precise.

I took a bite, and the chocolate was deliciously dark and bitter. I love dark chocolate, the darker the better, so I really enjoyed this. Milk chocolate fans, this just isn't for you. This is dark, bitter, and almost coffee like. I could taste the slight fruitiness mentioned on the wrapper, with a dark roasted cocoa flavoring, but I really didn't notice the vanilla. Since I really love dark, bitter, chocolates this was right up my alley, and although the package suggests pairing it with jasmine tea, I would like to pair this with some fresh slices strawberries.

So far, I am loving this dark chocolate passport. I'll review a few more chocolate bars later this week, but the packaging alone makes this a gorgeous gift for any dark chocolate lovers in your family. Toss a bow on this little box and you're done!